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Tag: Alex Jones

  • Alex Jones to pay $473 million in additional damages for his ‘fake Sandy Hook’ claim

    Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist, has been ordered to pay an additional $473 million (£405 million) for falsely claiming the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.

    The Connecticut judge’s order brings Jones’ total obligation to pay after the defamation trial to $1.44 billion.

    Plaintiffs sought additional compensation, citing Jones’ “utter lack of repentance” and “historic” wrongdoing.

    Jones now admits that the 14 December 2012 attack that killed 20 children and six adults was “100% real.”

    The case in Connecticut is one of three Jones is facing over the claims that the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, was a “staged” government plot to take guns from Americans and that “no-one died”.

    He had called the parents of victims “crisis actors” and argued that some of them never actually existed.

    In the Connecticut defamation trial, families of eight victims, and an FBI agent who responded to the attack, had sought at least $550m. They alleged the right-wing radio host’s misinformation led to a decade of harassment and death threats.

    The trial follows a similar case in Texas in August that saw Jones ordered to pay $49.3m in damages to other Sandy Hook parents.

    Judge Barbara Bellis imposed the extra punitive damages on the Infowars host and his company on Thursday.

    In a separate order, the judge temporarily blocked Jones from moving any personal assets out of the US after the plaintiffs claimed Jones was trying to hide some.

    A lawyer for the families, Chris Mattei, said the ruling served “to reinforce the message of this case: Those who profit from lies targeting the innocent will face justice”.

    It is unclear how much money the families will actually receive, with Jones saying on Wednesday there “ain’t no money”.

    He and his company have filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, where a forensic economist has testified that he and his company are worth around $270m. Jones has disputed that figure.

    Jones broadcast himself watching last month’s verdict and scoffing at the court proceedings.

    His lawyer Norm Pattis has argued for a new trial.

    Jones still faces a third defamation trial over the Sandy Hook shooting that begins in Texas later this year.

  • Alex Jones requests new trial after billion-dollar Sandy Hook verdict

    Alex Jones wants a redo.

    According to the Associated Press, the far-right media figure has asked the court to scrap the nearly $1 billion verdict in his Sandy Hook defamation lawsuit. The suit—brought forth by eight families of Sandy Hook victims—alleges Jones had used his platform to propagate baseless conspiracy theories about the 2012 school shooting, which left 20 children and six adults dead.

    Jones had repeatedly claimed that the massacre was an elaborate hoax orchestrated by gun control activists. The plaintiffs said they were falsely accused of being “crisis actors” and were subjected to constant harassment and death threats from those who believed Jones’ claims. The court ultimately ruled in the families’ favor, and ordered the Infowars founder to pay $965 million in compensatory damages to the plaintiffs.

    The Connecticut jury also determined that Jones and Infowars’ parent company should pay the plaintiffs punitive damages. The judge will determine that award sometime next month; however, the families have already asked the court to impose “the highest possible” amount, which could be as high as $2.75 trillion, according to Bloomberg.

    “The only appropriate punitive damages award in this case is the largest award within the court’s power,” the families said in the filing. “The defendants have acted willfully, maliciously, and evilly, in full knowledge of the harm they are causing people who had no means to fight back, except to bring this case.”

    In an effort to secure a new trial, Jones argued that the $1 billion verdict was “unjust and against the weight of the evidence.”

    “In short, (Jones and his parent company Free Speech Systems) contend that verdict is exorbitant and a result of passion and prejudice,” his attorney, Norm Pattis, wrote in the motion filed Friday.

    “Additionally, the (families’) failure to offer any evidentiary standard by which the jury could calculate damages rendered the verdict a species of wild speculation unsupported by law and resulted in a verdict that denies (Jones and FSS) due process of law.”

    Source: Complex.com

  • Sandy Hook school shooting: Alex Jones told to pay $965m damages to victims’ families

    Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist, has been ordered to pay $965 million (£869 million) in damages for making false claims that the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was a fabrication.

    In the defamation trial in Connecticut, the families of eight victims and an FBI agent who responded to the attack had demanded at least $550 million.

    They alleged the right-wing radio host’s misinformation led to a decade of harassment and death threats.

    Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

    Jones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website and talk show, argued for years that the massacre was a “staged” government plot to take guns from Americans and that “no one died”.

    He called the parents of victims “crisis actors” and argued that some of them never actually existed.

    He now acknowledges the attack was “100% real”, a concession he made in August at a separate defamation trial in Texas.

    As the verdict was read out on Wednesday in Waterbury, Connecticut – some 20 miles (32 km) from the site of the 2012 shooting – many of the families were visibly emotional with some in tears.

    The three-week trial was marked by emotional testimony from a succession of parents.

    Some described receiving a deluge of online hate and others said they had to move homes repeatedly for their own safety. A father, Mark Barden, recounted hearing that people were desecrating his son Daniel’s grave by “urinating on it and threatening to dig it up”.

    Jurors also heard evidence that Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, made millions of dollars selling nutritional supplements, survival gear and other products on the Infowars catalogue.

    Jones broadcast himself watching Wednesday’s verdict and scoffing at the court proceedings. He also appealed to his followers to make urgent donations, and pledged that the funds would not go toward his legal costs.

    “The money does not go to these people,” he said. “It goes to fight this fraud and it goes to stabilise the company.”

    His lawyer Norm Pattis told reporters that they will appeal the decision.

    “Candidly, from start to finish, the fix was in this case,” he said outside the court.

    In closing arguments, plaintiffs’ attorney Chris Mattei said: “When every single one of these families were drowning in grief, Alex Jones put his foot right on top of them.”

    Jones, for his part, had slammed the proceedings as a “show trial” run by a “tyrant” judge and argued he was not to blame for the actions of his followers.

    “I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times, and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” he said in dramatic testimony late last month that brought some in the courtroom to tears.

    His lawyers urged the six-member jury to ignore political undercurrents in the case and award minimal damages.

    His lead defence lawyer, Mr Pattis, also drew a stern rebuke from the judge after he accused the opposing legal team of “inventing anger”.

    The trial follows a similar case in Texas in August that saw Jones ordered to pay $49.3m in damages to other Sandy Hook parents.

    The plaintiffs – who said they had endured harassment and emotional distress because of the Infowars founder’s misinformation – had sought $150m.

    A lawyer in the Connecticut case said families should receive at least $550m, saying Jones’s Sandy Hook content got an estimated 550 million views from 2012 to 2018.

    But the jury ultimately made 15 separate awards, ranging from $28m to $120m, totalling $965m.

    It said these were to cover emotional distress as well as slander and defamation. It is possible Jones will be separately told to pay punitive damages.

    However, it is unclear how much money the families will actually receive, with Jones saying on Wednesday there “ain’t no money”.

    He and his company have filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas, where a forensic economist has testified that he and his company are worth around $270m. Jones has disputed that figure.

    Jones and his entourage flew to Connecticut from Texas for the trial in a private jet. They stayed in a rented villa with a pool and tennis court, according to the New York Times.

    Jones still faces a third defamation trial over the Sandy Hook shooting that begins in Texas later this year.

     

  • Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook families $965 million for false crisis actors claims, Jones responds

    Far-right conspiracy theorist and InfoWars founder Alex Jones has been ordered to pay $965 million in damages to the families of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting victims.

    As reported by Reuters and CNN, a Connecticut jury decided on the amount on Wednesday at the conclusion of the lengthy trial. Jones claimed on multiple occasions that the shooting, which claimed the lives of 27 elementary school students and staff, was a “false flag” operation conceived by gun control advocates. He accused the families of being “crisis actors,” and called the shooting “a giant hoax” that was “completely fake.”

    He was initially sued for his comments by the family of a victim in 2018, and the defamation suit later grew to represent 15 plaintiffs. The decision comes after Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, was ordered to pay over $49 million to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old shooting victim Jesse Lewis, by a Texas jury in August.

    Jones later responded after being ordered to pay the $965 million. “They want to scare everybody away from freedom,” he said in a segment on InfoWars. “And scare us from questioning Uvalde and what really happened there, or Parkland or any other event. And Guess what? We’re not scared, and we’re not going away. We’re not going to stop. Literally, for hundreds of thousands of dollars, I can keep them in court for years. I can appeal this stuff.”

    He called the entire lawsuit against him “a joke,” and then asked for his followers to purchase dietary supplements from his online store. His media empire filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

    “You may say that is astronomical. It is,” said Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “It’s exactly what Alex Jones set himself up to do. That’s what he built. He built a lie machine that could push this stuff out. You reap what you sow.” Throughout the case in Texas, he called the proceedings a “kangaroo court,” and labeled the judge a “tyrant.” He also took a moment to go on a rant about “liberals.”

    Source: Complex.com